Operators of the portal appeared cranky about the necessity for the changeover, which seemed to have been prompted by the Motion Picture Association of America and its allies in the intellectual-property war constantly raging around the world. On the new Movie4k.to site, they posted a “Public Announcement” on Sunday that read, in part: “Nobody should have the power to suppress somebody just because of money! This site is the result of the need of many Human Beings. Everyone wants Movie2k.to/Movie4k.to back. We, the Citizens, have to make clear that a ‘copyright infringement’ cannot be compared to a violent crime. … You cannot suppress the will of the People! One website goes, the next day five new appear.”

Elsewhere on the site, Movie4k.to described itself as offering a daily-updated collection of high-quality films, telling its users: “Our platform is absolutely free. There is no need to download, just relax and watch your preferred movies.”

Movie4k.to also noted: “We do not host any files on our server nor do we upload any movies on other hosting websites. Our website workes [sic] like a search engine, gathering and sorting movies from other websites and showing the embeded [sic] code or the direct link.” As a result, the site contended, “[W]e are absolutely legal.”